Re: Christmas Shopping Fireworks
 

you appear to have missed my point! a proper christmas market - chalet type stalls selling christmas wares from around the world such as they have in manchester/birmingham/london etc.. make it a proper christmas festival!

Re: Christmas Shopping Fireworks
 

Sort of like a Christmas themed Christmas celebration?

Bit radical.

Where would nineties dance acts fit into that off the wall idea?

Re: Christmas Shopping Fireworks
 

Great idea - totally agree -should involve local products , people, history and shop-keepers...Keep it up-market, get good local sponsorship...hope Leon is up to the task.

Sorry to bang on abut Cremona but it's where i live. We had a well-known home grown celeb. footballer Gianluca Vialli to pubblicise the event , a celebrity Chef, Music, culture, lots of entertainment - The whole festival lasted a weekend including the lights being switched on...Accy has all the ingredients -great historic backdrop etc -just needs some-one with vision to get a hold of the reins...

Take a look at link to see photos etc of the Festival in Cremona which took place last weekend. Lots of street entertainers around town finished off the whole thing...

Just seen G's post which overlaps mine -go back to tradition -that's what people want in difficult times -things that have stood the test of time...
Festa del Torrone di Cremona 2011

Re: Christmas Shopping Fireworks
 

Agreed, and that's down to the lack of vision by anyone on the council. Not down to the person they've somewhat lazily passed the event over to. Who I'm sure is doing his best, but running a bar and a nightclub act, isn't really the experience that's needed to turn this event into a must see destination.

It is funded from the public purse, and at times when we are seeing cuts in public services, people have the right to question if the benefits outweigh the considerable costs involved.

We've already had one town centre business owner post it wasn't worth him staying open financially, the night of the event.

A nice night out for the neddies, bouncing along to dance anthems from a couple of decades ago, but not really an event that attracts the whole comunity, or even something that's particularly Christmassy, in a traditional sense.

Re: Christmas Shopping Fireworks
 

What you mean something that should be a draw for the whole county?:eek:

Our "nougat festival" (sorry Torrone is nougat) drew in over 120,000 people....late night shop opening -business for the whole town...

Re: Christmas Shopping Fireworks
 

Ok people few questions for me to answer -

1. Christmas Markets etc, The German Market was asked to come to Accrington, Think that you need to realise is that Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham are all cities, they will not come to Accrington due to the size and also expected turn out, In some regards the council have to pay for this market traders to come into the town, which sounds ludcrious.

2. Budget wise, Ill have to speak to the powers that be before i post anything on here re how much budget their is, However trust me as i worked with it for the past 3 months, The council do not waste money on this event, they have to work to a tight budget as the goverment controls it, so unfortunatley the funds do not cover for some huge huge celebs and turning the event into a full weekend event.

3. This year was my first year and i have seen just how hard it is to run an event that everyone enjoys and your always not going to please anyone, however its a learning curve and weve learned things for next year.

I hope this answers few things, Budget wise what you need to take into consideration, Road Closures are £1500.00, Licenses, Fireworks, Staging, Speaker Systems, Talent on Stage, Security, Police all invisibles that dont get seen, so please do not be thinking that this is a huge budget as it is not

Re: Christmas Shopping Fireworks
 

tradition is the key to an event like this, hence why the bigger events are so successful

look at grassington dickensian christmas fair for example, traditional, good value well advertised and every year oversubscribed with coach companies having to book in advance to get in! why not make regular events like this. promote our town and make it one to be proud of. we potentially do have much to offer so why not build on it.times are tough - we all know that so if there is not enough money floating round in our own residents pockets to keep local businesses afloat then it needs to come from elsewhere. and the answer to that my friends is to bring it in from elsewhere by attracting outsiders in from other areas to spend what little they have in our town by making our town more attractive than theirs, by making it unique and by offering what they can't get in their own town(s).

Re: Christmas Shopping Fireworks
 

Let's start realistically.

Attracting people from all sections of the borough, families, older people, might be a start.

Rather than just crowds of people in trackies.

Which might mean more money being spent in the town.

Instead of just in Gregg's.

Where people queue to buy a sausage roll for their baby mother's kiddy to suck on, whilst watching Rowetta, or whatever big star is going to be knocking out their nearly were hits, next year.

Re: Christmas Shopping Fireworks
 

firstly, if something is worth doing, it's worth doing well!
or
if you aren't going to do it properly don't do it at all!

secondly, who needs the german market to come, i'm damn sure that just as good a job can be done by local residents offering local traditional fayre

ie.you supply the chalets and the people supply the goods and the atmosphere (a fair trade in my book)

why are the organising bodies always so short sighted.

'errr........... we can only use the resources that are already available and that costs too much'

why can't it be ' those resources are too expenxive....... i know we'll look at this from another angle........... why can't we make our own resources hmmmmmmm........... much cheaper WE CAN DO THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Re: Christmas Shopping Fireworks
 

pound bakery! get with the times!:D

Re: Christmas Shopping Fireworks
 

Oh, and before anyone says -Cremona must be a big town to afford all that....the official population is 71.912 - I think that's less than Accy. Although there is a very mixed population here and there are immigrants from Eastern Europe, India, Pakistan and Africa -+ the odd British citizen (threre are 12 of us officially!) and other countries -they don't have expensive initiatives for black and ethnic minorities and such...money is spent on the community as a whole...

Re: Christmas Shopping Fireworks
 

and like most little european towns is proud of its heritage and understands the importance of trade from both internal residents and outside trade also

Re: Christmas Shopping Fireworks
 

Never mind greggs we now we have a £1 bakery to go with our wonderful card shops and phone shops and our other outstanding normal pound shops:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:.We have no chance of offering anything like german markets etc in this town, the centre offers no big names for shopping and sadly a market which in my opinion is hanging on with its fingertips , why would people come to Accrington rather than go to bigger places such as Preston,Manchester for example?

Re: Christmas Shopping Fireworks
 

Well said OB1!! Give the young people of the town a place to show what they can do too -schools could partecipate -young artists/ artisans ..the possibilites are endless if the flesh is willing.....Lacking spirit?:rolleyes:

Re: Christmas Shopping Fireworks
 

The public will decide on whether something is a 'waste', or is good value for money, or not, only after all the costs involved have been made public.

Until then, 'waste', 'value for money', and things like 'worth', or all subjective terms. They can't possibly be judged, until all the finances are made known.

You mention the costs of attracting high profile celebrities.

What on earth makes you think that people want whatever list of celebrity involved?

When did Christmas become about 'celebrity'?

People associate Christmas with tradition, not some naff has been.

This isn't your fault. It's the lazy arse person at the council, who lacking their own vision, passed the job over to you.